Come Hell or High Water - Monsoon Season

Hail piled a foot high at the office

August is here and July is past. It will be remembered as a month that brought weather that was juuust a bit north of the cray-cray. I will recreate some of it here.

It begins with severe drought conditions and a near statewide closure of the National Forests, then swiftly proceeds to be one of the wettest months in years. Then armageddon paid a visit to Casa Dirt around mid-month, bringing 1.25+ inches of rain cascading down in a twenty minute period. Along with the downpour came a hard driving blast of blueberry-sized hail which shredded all plant life. Hail cover accumulated on the ground like super-mean-spirited-hostile-snow before the rains melted it down and washed it away. Unexpected would be a fine way to describe it.

End result:  Rain barrels filled-over with water sitting mere feet away from a garden now torn asunder. A whole fence line of grape vines (and grapes), no mas. An entire plot of happy green chile plants reduced to stems with roots. Now if that ain't a step-back kick in the junk. I didn't cry, but it did get me thinking about how other men sometimes sob and cry and carry-on and that all sunk my spirits some. Then I remembered that there was some cold IPA in the fridge and that was that and now here's August.

Front porch geranium took one for the team. Sorry bro.

The St Francis underpass did not fair well. Took a day to
drain and dry then a crew from the City came in and swept it clean.

High water mark from the tunnel flood reached just above the crossbar of my bike. That's no joke. 

And some downstream video of the biblical event:

The Arroyo Chamisos in flood mode - near Camino Carlos Rey

Cray-cray

Related Posts:
  - Arroyo Chamiso Bike Underpass Nears Completion
  - More to Dirt than just Trails and Adventure




View Gail Ryba Trail - Santa Fe, NM in a larger map

There's More to Dirt than Trails and Adventure

Busy fall. So busy it seems there's only time enough to operate as a Man of Action, and less so as a Man of Letters. But some activities are so first rate little description is required - an image gets the job done with aplomb. And so I present a summer's worth of toil in my garden, the first summer where the rewards outnumber the disappointments.

GREEN CHILE AND BEETS, SONS!! Wassup now!?

Spinach too but not pictured! I'm like the gardening equivalent of Hannibal from the A-Team but without the badass speeding black van. Life is good at Casa Dirt.